Mixed reactions to Pope Francis’ most recent LGBT-related comments have continued to be published, including the perspectives of feminist Catholics and some columnists.

Jamie Manson of National Catholic Reportersuggested LGBT Catholics should not be too hopeful about Pope Francis’ recent comment to a gay man, Juan Carlos Cruz, that “God made you like this.” She offered two reasons: the Vatican’s decision not to confirm that the pope actually made the alleged comments, and the pope’s earlier slander against Cruz who has made accusations about his sexual abuse by clergy. She continued:

“Other than his still-ambiguous ‘Who am I to judge?’ comment in 2013, the only truly affirming remarks Francis has offered to LGBTQ persons have come from secondhand accounts from the few openly gay men who were given the privilege to speak to him. Can we possibly find authentic hope in Francis’ strange game of telephone?

“Rather than try to decode Francis’ language or struggle to discern what is truly in his heart, perhaps it is time to admit how inadequate his rumored words are in the face of the grave spiritual harm, loss of work and civil rights, and physical violence endured by LGBTQ persons everyday, often at the hands of Christian churches and teachings.”

Joanita Warry Ssenfuka

Manson called to readers’ attention Ssenfuka Joanita Warry, a lesbian Catholic who struggles for LGBT rights in Uganda, and who has experienced and witnessed the punitive and dangerous context for LGBT people in that country. At the Voices of Faith event last spring, Warry told attendees that religious leaders’ failure to act for equality “makes them complicit” in the harm done. Manson commented:

“In many parts of our world, LGBTQ persons are as marginalized as some of the poorest of the poor, facing poverty, lack of work and sexualized violence because of their status. For those in parts of the world where there is no threat of imprisonment or death, there is the spiritual violence of being rejected by family, the workplace and the church.

“In the face of so much suffering, LGBTQ persons deserve much more than hearsay. They deserve the same level of outspoken, vigorous advocacy that the pope offers other oppressed groups.

“Francis told Cruz that it ‘doesn’t matter’ if he is gay. But the need for Francis to speak boldly and clearly in defense of LGBTQ people does matter. In fact, for many of us, it’s a matter of life and death.”

Theologian Mary Hunt, writing on Francis’ papacy in general in a Religion Dispatchespiece titled “Earth to Planet Catholic: Francis Papacy is No Picnic,” concluded:

“Meanwhile [after several Church failures], in other parts of the solar system there are wars, Royinga women dealing with babies after an epidemic of rapes, and superpowers at odds over nuclear capacities. As for the Francis legacy, I suspect history will ask, Francis who?”

Arshy Mann

Against the pope’s critics, Arshy Mann writing at Xtra was more hopeful and wrote:

“But for millions of LGBT Catholics, it’s a fight worth having. There is perhaps no single institution in the world that has such an outsized effect on attitudes towards LGBT people than the Catholic Church. Even small shifts can have profound consequences.

“Francis’ papacy may be a new beginning. How that story ends is yet to be written.”

Michael Coren

Columnist Michael Coren writing for iPolitics walked the line, suggesting Francis’ comment to Cruz was “arguably the most revolutionary statement made by any senior Catholic priest, let alone a Pope.” Coren, a Canadian who is a former Catholic, also wrote:

“I doubt we will see very much progress and action on this issue for some time, but the door has been pushed open wider, and it looks as though it’s impossible to shut it again. . . Perhaps, just perhaps, [pro-LGBT politicians] will soon be able to ignore all of that nonsense. And that will be a good thing not only for Canada, but also for the Roman Catholic Church.”

Pope Francis

Based on a report from the Pew Research Center published earlier this year, Pope Francis is viewed positively by U.S. Catholics with an 84% approval rating. 74% of people surveyed believe the pope has made the Church at least a little more accepting of lesbian and gay people. 38% would like to see Francis do more to be inclusive and just 7% said he should do less on homosexuality.

Where do you fall? Is Pope Francis’ remark to Juan Carlos Cruz a sign of progress? Should we be hopeful about the Francis papacy when it comes to LGBT issues? Or are hopes for him becoming denial? Review New Ways Ministry’s “Many Faces of Pope Francis” timeline of everything he has said and done, positively and negatively, on LGBT issues, and then leave your thoughts in the “Comments” section below.

One of the things I remember from long ago Canon Law class was our being told that change in the Church is very slow..Change will come when world societal attitudes change and we ain’t there.Maybe in 2 or 3 hundred years.

This article is very interesting. It’s amazing, and so obvious, that the women you included here are beyond patience with the “telephone” nature of the Pope’s pronouncements. Not simply lesbian, but women as well, they have suffered disproportionately from church oppression. Especially poor Joanita! The men seem more willing to accept the small breadcrumbs falling from the Pope’s table. They don’t suffer the double whammy the women do. At any rate, nothing official comes from the Pope. I imaging he’d like the “gay stuff” to go away so he could concentrate on the the poor, immigrants and migrants, and the environment. All those things are so very important and I love his stance on those issues. The gay stuff? I’m with Jamie Manson

I am constantly amazed that the response by leaders in organized religions, including our own Catholic Church, when challenged by their failure to alter policies clearly at odds with the teachings of Jesus, is that the Church moves slowly where change is involved. To this I say that there has been plenty of time since the Christian Gospels were first written and promulgated for them to be understood and followed. Times change, but what constitutes loving one’s neighbor as oneself does not. I am still smarting from the Church’s proclamation in the 1970s that homosexual people were “intrinsically disordered.” I am heterosexual but I am human , and as such, feel personally offended when other humans are dealt a pejorative label for simply being who they are, especially when Jesus’ own Church does the labeling. As a woman, I suffer the effects of sexism every time I am reminded that I cannot proclaim the Gospel at Mass because of my gender. I can only imagine my reaction if I were called to priesthood and considered my call a genuine summons by God, only to be told by a group of males, no matter what their office, that my call was not genuine. I would feel the same sense of injustice that my sisters, to whom this continues to happen, feel. As for “societal attitudes” not changing, as I write this, thousands of immigrant children have been separated from their parents at our southern borders because the “societal attitudes” now endorsed by the political party in charge, are allowing this travesty. Unless many positive changes occur in our country as well as in our Church, people in power in both areas very likely will continue to treat their fellow human beings unfairly and assert that they are helpless to do anything else. And too many of us, even when our own consciences tell us otherwise, have been conditioned to believe that we must blindly follow their lead. Lord Acton continues to be right. “Power corrupts, and absolute power corrupts absolutely.”

I’d love it if his Holiness would say:”Attention all personnel. You will immediately stop firing Church employees for being gay!” Unfortunately that’s not possible. My own theory is he’s using ambiguity to lay the groundwork while he packs the Cardinals to elect Cardinal Tagle as his successor who might even be in a position to announce “Attention all personnel ….” One can only hope and dream.